Flight mounting



Jan. 5, 143. L. e. KURTZ FLIGHT MOUNTING Filed Aug; 28, 1941 2 Sheets-Sheet l I'I lll -0T7050N I I $3M ATTORNEY Jan. 5, 1943. G, KURTZ 2,307,139

FLIGHT MOUNTING Filed'Aug. 28, 1941 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 INVENTORS LOEON 6 K09 72 e421. 0. orrasoN ATTORNEY Patented Jan. 5, 1943 2,307,139 FLIGHT MOUNTING Loron G. Kurtz, Brooklyn, and Carl C. Ottoson, Port Richmond, Staten Island, N. Y.

Application August 28, 1941, Serial No. 408,582

12 Claims.

Our invention relates to a flight mounting, and this application is a continuation in part of our application, Serial No. 334,288, filed May 9, 1940, now Patent No. 2,266,645, issued December 16, 1941.

In our said co-pending application, there is disclosed a refuse truck having parallel side chains or conveyors with flights mounted therebetween for loading refuse into the truck body. Reference is hereby made to the application aforesaid for a fuller description of the refuse truck and its operation and for the general setting and environment of the present invention.

It is the general object of the invention to provide an improved form of conveyor flight mount- A more specific object is to provide a spring tensioned conveyor flight mounting, which is relatively simple in construction, readily manufactured, adjusted and assembled, and so arranged that the principal working parts are enhoused and protected.

Other objects and various features of novelty and invention will be hereinafter pointed out or will become apparent to those skilled in the art. In the drawings which show, for illustrative purposes only, a preferred form of the invention- Fig. l is a fragmentary view of a conveyor chain and flight carried thereby, features of our 1 improved flight mounting being illustrated in central section;

Fig. 2 is a sectional view through a conveyor flight, the improved flight mounting being shown in elevation with parts broken away to illustrate interior construction;

Fig. 3 is a sectional view through the lower end of a loading conveyor or boot, illustrating one flight and improved flight mounting in transverse section;

Fig. 4 is an enlarged exploded view in partial section of our improved flight mounting.

In said drawings, and referring particularly to Fig. '3, the lower end of the conveyor housing is fragmentarily shown at 5. At each side of the boot or housing 5, there is a chain guide or pulley 6 for the conveyor chains such as 1. Each chain 1 preferably carries rollers 88 for engagement with the chain guide shown and others, as will be understood. The chains at suitable intervals carry flexibly mounted flights 9, which are carried around by the conveyor chains and which serve to convey the refuse up through the casing 5 and into the body of the truck. In Fig. 3, the conveyor flight 9 is shown in the position where 55 bottom of the cup member.

it has been forced by a piece of lumber shown in dot-dash lines, and the drawing illustrates how the sturdy flight engageable with an abutment, which may be a through shaft, is supported so as to break the stick of lumber and thus permit it to be carried along by the flight shown, or subsequent flights, and dumped into the refuse truck. Our present invention relates to an improved flight mounting to be used in connection with a conveyor, preferably of the type set forth in our prior application. The conveyor 1 includes side links I0-l0 held together by the usual pivot or pintle pins ll. Where our improved flight mounting is located, we preferably employ an elongated pintle pin l2, as will be later described.

In a preferred form the flight 9 is carried on an arm forming part of or attached to one member forming part of the flight mounting. Such flight mounting includes a pair of members rotatable relatively to each other, one of the members being secured to or carried by the conveyor, while the other member carries the flight such as 9. The two members are constructed and arranged so as to form an enclosed housing for receiving parts of the flight mounting.

In the form shown, the flight mounting includes what we term a cup member 13, which carries a flight 9, and a cooperating closure member l4 closing the open end of the cup and forming therewith an enclosed chamber l5. The closure member or disk N forms part of, or in any suitable way is secured to, a link ll! of the chain; preferably a separate disk member 14 is welded to the link II]. The disk may fit within the open end of the cup, as illustrated, and a seal such as an annular ring of felt IE or the like is interposed between the periphery of the disk and the adjacent surface of the cup I3 and is preferably held in a groove in one of the members, such asthe groove I! in the disk.

The disk M in the preferred form has an upstanding bored boss I8 centrally thereof and projecting into the cup l5. The cup has a centrally projecting upstanding boss I9, surrounding the boss l8, and cooperating therewith to form a pivotal bearing between the disk and cup members. A bearing sleeve 20 may be interposed between the two bosses. The long headed bolt or pintle pin l2 passes through the bore 21 in the 1 boss I3, and the pintle pin [2 serves as part of the means for securing the flight mounting parts together. In the form shown, a washer 22 is passed over the end of the pintle pin l2 and abuts the bottom of a counterbore 23 in the Means such as a castellated nut 24 may be secured on the end of the pintle and held against rotation by a cotter pin or the like 25. Thus, the parts of the flight mounting will be held against separation and yet will be freely rotatable relatively to each other. The counterbore 23 may be closed as by means of a bowed disk 25, which may be held in place as by means of a split snap ring 21, as will be understood. I

The cup and disk forming parts of the flight mounting are urged in one rotative direction relatively to each other by means of a torsion, spring 28 housed in the circumferentially continuous annular space in the closed cup member (5 and which surrounds the upstanding bosses. The two parts of the flight mounting are provided with spring abutments, and in the form shown the bottom of the cup I5 is bored and counterbored to receive an axially upstanding spring abutment 29 which projects up into the cup. This spring abutment has a tight fit in its bore and counterbore in the bottom of the cup and the end may be riveted or otherwise treated so as to securely hold the abutment in place. A corresponding abutment 30 is secured to the disk l4, and in the form shown the abutment at one end projects well into the enclosed cup !5 and the other end extends through a hole in the disk and at the end is turned down'and passes through a hole in the link Ill. The end may be riveted over, as indicated at 3|, to securely hold the disk abutment in place. The torsion spring 23 is preferably formed of a number of convolutions and the ends may be returnbent so as to engage over the respective abutments 2930. By properly tensioning the spring at assembly, the degree of force tending to rotate the two flight mounting parts relatively to each other may be readily determined.

In the preferred form, the abutments 2930 have abutting surfaces 32-33 which are engageable with each other and are normally held in engagement with each other by the torsion spring. The abutting surfaces 3233 are preferably so positioned that when they are in engagement with each other, the flight 9 will be held slightly spaced from the conveyor housing as is indicated at 34 in Fig. 3. Thus, the flights will not ordinarily scrape on the casing and considerable noise will thus be avoided.

It will be seen that, when a conveyor flight meets with an obstruction, it may rock inwardly, as shown in Fig. 3, against the tension of the spring 28, and the obstruction, such as an oversize package of refuse, or a stick, may be carried along or crushed and then carried along by the flights as is more particularly set forth in our aforesaid application.

It will be seen that our improved flight mounting is more or less streamlined in that there are no substantial projections upon which refuse will be likely to lodge or with which wire or other similar refuse is likely to become entangled. The spring is housed within the enclosed chamber l5 as are the abutments. There is substantially no likelihood of refuse or other material getting into the chamber and wedging between the abutments or impairing the action of the spring. The bearing surfaces between the conveyor flight members may be very efiectively lubricated through a lubricating hole, closed as by means of a closure screw 35.

While the invention in one specific form has been described in considerable detail, it is to be understood that various changes and modifications may be made within the scope of the invention as defined in the appended claims.

We claim:

1. In a flight mounting, a conveyor, a hollow cup member and a closure disk for the open end of said cup member, one of said members being secured to said conveyor, said cup member and said closure member having centrally interengaging bearing parts whereby said cup member and closure member may rotate relatively to each other, and a coil torsion spring in said cup member, and means for interengaging one end of said torsion spring with said cup member and the other end thereof with said closure member.

2. In a flight mounting, a conveyor, a disk secured thereto, a cup member fitting over said disk and defining an enclosed cup space, a torsion spring in said enclosed cup space, and abutment means on said disk and cup member engageable by the ends of said coil torsion spring.

3. In a flight mounting, a conveyor, a disk secured thereto and having an upstanding central boss, a cup member fittin over said disk and defining therewith an enclosed space, an upstanding boss in the bottom of said cup member and cooperating with the boss on said disk member for providing a bearing between said disk and cup members, and a torsion spring in said enclosed space and surrounding at least one of said upstanding bosses, and means for engaging the ends of said torsion spring with said cup member and disk member respectively for urging said cup and disk members in one rotative direction relatively to each other.

4. In a flight mounting, a pair of relatively rotatable members rotatably secured to each other and having spaced apart portions defining a Wholly enclosed space between them, and a torsion spring in said enclosed space, each end of said torsion spring being engaged with one of said relatively rotatable members, for the purpose described.

5. In a device of the character indicated, a pair of relatively rotatable members rotatably secured together and defining an enclosed space between them, a torsion spring in said enclosed space, and an abutment member on each of said members and engageable by the ends of said torsion spring, said abutments being inter-engageable with each other, for the purpose described.

6. In a flight mounting, a pair of relatively rotatable members rotatably secured to each other and having spaced apart portions defining a wholly enclosed space between them, interengaging abutments on said two members for limiting relative rotation between said members in one direction, and a torsion spring housed in said enclosed space for rotatably urging said members relatively to each other to urge said abutments toward engaging position.

7. In a flight mounting, a pair of relatively rotatable members rotatably secured to each other and defining an annular space between them, interengageable abutments on said two members for limiting rotative movement of said members relatively to each other in one direction, and a torsion spring in said enclosed space and engageable with said abutments for urging the latter toward engaging position.

8. In a flight mounting, a cup member, a closure disk for closing the open end of said cup member, seal means between said disk and cup members, means for pivotally securing said disk and cup members together, a coil torsion spring for rotatably urging said cup and disk members in one rotative direction relatively to each other, and abutments means for limiting the extent of rotation in saiddirection.

9. In a flight mounting, a conveyor, a disk carried thereby, a cup member having its open end cooperating with said disk to define an enclosed space, said disk having a central upstanding boss extending into said cup member, said cup member having an upwardly extending boss therein cooperating with said first mentioned boss to form a bearing for rotatably supporting said disk and cup relativelyg to each other, means for securing said cup and disk against endwise disengagement from each other, a torsion spring surrounding said bosses and enclosed in the space between said cup and disk, and abutment means for said cup and disk and engageable by the ends of said torsion spring for urging said cup and disk rotatably in one direction relatively to each other.

10. In a flight mounting, a conveyor, a disk carried thereby, a cup member interfitting with said disk to define an enclosed cup space, bearing means between said disk and cup member for rotatably supporting said disk and cup member relatively to each other, axially extending abutments carried by said disk and cup members, a torsion spring in said cup member, each end of said torsion spring being engageable with one of said abutments for urging the same into engagement with each other and limiting relative rotation of said cup and disk in one direction.

11. In a flight mounting, a cup member having a generally centrally upwardly directed tubular boss therein defining a circumferentially continuous annular space within said cup member, a closure member for said cup member for enclosing said annular space, a coil torsion spring in said circumferentially continuous annular space, and abutment means carried by a part of said cup member and a part of said closure member and engageable by the ends of said torsion spring whereby said cup member and closure member will be rotatably urged by said torsion spring in one rotative direction.

12. In a flight mounting, a cup member having an upstanding boss therein defining a circumferentially continuous annular space within said cup, a closure member fitting within the open end of said cup and enclosing said space, one of the said members having a circumferentially extending groove therein, a circumferentially extending seal member seated in said groove and engaging a circumferential adjacent surface of the other member, a torsion spring in said annular space, and abutment means carried by parts of said cup member and closure member, and engageable by the ends of said torsion spring for urging said cup member and closure member in one rotative direction relatively to each other.

LORON G. KURTZ. CARL c. OTTOSON. 

